This invention relates to chimney cleaners, and in particular to those chimney cleaners which can be collapsed to save storage space and for ease of use and handling.
Generally, soot build-up in a chimney, whether the fuel be wood, coal, or even oil, can cause serious problems, including fuel waste, and even chimney fires. It follows then that removal of this soot is very important to the health and safety of the persons working and/or living within the building served by the chimney.
In the past, this soot was removed by means of bristle brushes, in the manner of the classic "chimney sweeps" of Victorian England. These bristle brushes wore out relatively quickly on the uneven stone, mortar and brick inside most chimneys, and it was difficult to effectively clean the inside corners of the chimney since most chimneys were and are rectangular or square in cross-section.
Neuman, U.S. Pat. No. 1,775,969, issued Sept. 16, 1930, describes a metal chimney cleaner having cleaning members formed of wire. These cleaning members are attached to the edges of an upper plate, and pass through the edges of a larger concentric lower plate of the same shape. These cleaning members fan outwardly to come in contact with the inside walls of the chimney when the two plates are made to approach each other. A rod attached to the lower plate passes through the upper plate. When the rod is pulled upward, such as by means of a cable, force is applied outwardly on the inside of the chimney walls by the cleaning members. As the upward force on the cable increases, the outward force on the chimney walls increases. Here lies the problem.
As stated above, the inside surfaces of most chimneys are uneven, being made of stone, mortar, brick, etc. Thus if the cleaning members catch on a protrusion, the operator's first reaction will be that a stubborn bit of soot has been encountered, and to pull up more vigorously on the cable. The cleaner will then be lodged in the chimney even more tightly, with no way to dislodge it short of throwing a foreign object down the chimney in an attempt to knock it loose.
This invention relates to solutions to the problems described above.